Richard Holbrooke and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Nikolai Afanasyevsky drove that message home during talks throughout the day with Rugova and representatives of all 16 ethnic Albanian political parties.

Absent from the meetings were representatives of the militant Kosovo Liberation Army, which is fighting for Kosovo's independence from Serbia, the largest of two remaining republics in Yugoslavia. Hundreds of people have been killed in Kosovo since a Serb police crackdown in February.

Holbrooke, nominated to be the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, has been shuttling between Kosovo's capital of Pristina and the Yugoslav capital Belgrade since Friday.ynhlaccRugovadr

The KLA has so far refused, and it was unclear whether Holbrooke's latest effort had narrowed the differences within the ethnic Albanian community.

"Rugova himself is going to continue to seek a broader base for his goal, which is a negotiated peaceful settlement to the Kosovo problem," Holbrooke said before returning to Belgrade on Sunday.

Afanasyevsky also urged support for Rugova and repeated Moscow's refusal to talk directly with the KLA, which Russia and Serbia have labeled a terrorist organization.

saeoitiyrAfansyevskyThe goal of U.S. and Russian mediation is to help Kosovo's ethnic Albanians speak with a single voice in negotiations with Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic over the future of the province.

Milosevic has expressed willingness to restore the autonomy for Kosovo he canceled in 1989. While Rugova and others are demanding full independence, Rugova is considered the more acceptable negotiating partner because he opposes violence.

raKosovobnivvVojislavZivkovicmMilosevicr-alnThe Serb crackdown has undercut Rugova's moderate appeal. The German news magazine Spiegel quoted KLA spokesman Jakub Krasniqi as saying his organization would never accept Rugova as a leader because nonviolence had failed to gain independence or halt the crackdown.

The Serb Media Center reported ethnic Albanian militants attacked Serb police and villagers in two paincidents in northwest Kosovo Sunday. Militants also kidnapped three Serb civilians late Saturday from villages southwest of Pristina, the center said.

Meanwhile, officials close to Rugovo claimed that fighting had flared up again in a strategic mining region that saw heavy fighting last week. It was not possible to confirm the Serb or ethnic Albanian reports independently.